One game is starting early down in Miami (Braves/Marlins) and the Reds/Cubs are off on travel today after the Field of Dreams game last night. We will have no weather issues in the forecast for tonight and it’s cooled off a little bit around the league temperature wise. With NFL pre-season starting up, my guess is MLB is saving their juiced balls for the playoffs and I like some unders tonight believe it or not. Even Yanks/Red Sox doesn’t stand out as a must own offensively. Then again, we do have Coors Field on the slate. WEATHER All Clear [spacer height=”10px”] MAX SCHERZER Max gets to draw a Phillies lineup that is potentially without Schwarber and that’s a big deal given how much damage Kyle has done to the Mets pitching this season. Mets fans are probably going to look back and realize that Max getting hurt was the best thing that could happen for them this season. He’s now in that mode that Max is usually in back in May but in August and with a big series on hand they’ll get what they paid for tonight from the Ace. TYLER MAHLE Mahle continues to be a reverse splits guy and being in Anaheim that helps since it plays better for lefties with the short wall in right. Ohtani is still likely to get on base against him but the Rengifo-Walsh-Stassi’s of the world are not. He should put up a 6 inning, clean game with 7 or more strikeouts today. I prefer both of these guys over Carlos Rodon tonight but don’t have anything bad to say about Rodon if you opted to smash him in. [spacer height=”10px”] TIER THREE GUYS After Max and Mahle (which sounds like a new Family Comedy series coming out on ABC this fall every Thursday night) there’s a handful of optional picks who fall into the third SP category today that are less expensive on DK and actually could be just fine on FD too. Mike Clevinger, has always had better success when he faces weaker teams and while young kids Joey Meneses and Keibert Ruiz are hitting well for Washington they still possess a lot of weak bats in this lineup. But Clevinger just feels obvious to me vs the Nationals, he will pitch well, but not dominant. Same is true for Michael Kopech against the Tigers. I’ve been down this rabbit…...
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